North Queensland called it a Sydney conspiracy, but Cronulla prop Andrew Fifita believes the Cowboys would not have cried foul if they had won the semi-final against the Sharks last year.

The two teams will go head to head on Friday at Remondis Stadium for the first time since Cronulla knocked North Queensland out of the finals in a match marred by the seven-tackle set.

Cronulla were awarded a try to winger Beau Ryan in the first half of their final at Allianz Stadium on the seventh tackle of the set, infuriating then coach Neil Henry in what would be his last news conference in the top job.

"It's a final and it happened," Fifita said.

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"If anything, we look at it the other way. I was right there at the start of that set when Robert Lui dropped it clean into us. It should have been zero tackle, that's how I look at it.

"If they scored that last try, they wouldn't have brought it up. They wouldn't have said anything. It was about time for the Sharks to get something go their way for once, everything else seems to go against us."

It was not the first time the Cowboys found themselves on the wrong end of a refereeing blunder that culminated in their exit from the finals series.

In 2011, a controversial video refereeing decision to rule knock-on against Johnathan Thurston when the ball had clearly come off Manly five-eighth Kieran Foran ended their campaign at the hands of the Sea Eagles.

This had happened late in that game, but Fifita believes the Cowboys had enough time last year to snatch a victory, which they almost did.

"I never noticed it at all on the field," he said.

"It wasn't until after when the media started asking about the seventh tackle did I know what had happened. They [Cowboys] didn't even know about it until after the game and then they blew up. At the end of the day, they had their chance to win it in the last second of the game but John Morris made that try-saving tackle."

Cowboys coach Paul Green, who took on the job at the start of the season, sat down with the players this year and demanded they take accountability for their losses.

Green said he understood why the players felt the world was out to get them, but was adamant the attitude of the club had changed and they would no longer be making excuses.

"I'm trying to move past it and I think we need to as a club, but I can understand why they feel like that," he said.

"I was always of the belief that you just give yourself an excuse when you start blaming everything else. We need to move on. We've had some crap decisions go against us, but I've never used it as an excuse. After the Manly game [in Gosford] this year, it reared its ugly head again after a wrong decision was made.

"But I was pretty up front about it with the players. I can't comment on last year because I wasn't here but I've been pretty strong in telling the players they need to be accountable for their performances. There's no doubt we have got challenges because of where we're situated, so that in itself comes with its own set of challenges."